Branch Codes
by Melty Cat
Summary: & - ARCADE fan series - William Birkin had done some research into the coding of all the arcade's inhabitants and was shocked by what he found. Blanky and Ionia's codes need checking right away.
1. Chapter 1

Ionia had been spinning round in circles for around half an hour and Blanky had been sat watching her with a smile on her face. They had been in Birkin's lab for quite some time and had grown bored since Birkin had stepped out to do some chores.

"Here. Have a spinning chair instead!" Blanky wheeled over one of Birkin's office chairs and Ionia's eyes lit up. She dived onto it and began spinning round and round like a mad woman.

"Turbo come and try this, you buttface!" Ionia called for Turbo who was in the bathroom to come and join in the fun.

Blanky raised a brow. "Buttface?"

"Mmmmhmmm Turbo is a buttface."

"Oh... My god." Blanky just couldn't help but laugh at the nickname and was still laughing when Turbo wandered back in. He gave her an odd look before turning to face Ionia.

"Whath her problem?"

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Heyo buttface!"

"WHO ARE YA CALLIN' BUTTFATHE!?"

Ionia pointed as she continued to spin on the chair and nearly knocked Birkin, who was just entering the room again, off his feet. "Yooou, Turbutt!"

"How DARE you make fun of the greatetht rather ever? Don't you know who I am?"

"Take it easy, Turbutt...I mean Buttface...no! I mean Turbo." Blanky stifled giggles with her hand. She couldn't help it, the words just seemed to fall from her mouth.

Turbo stomped up to Blanky with a menacing look on his face and snorted. "What did you call me?"

"Tu... Turb... TURBUTT!"

Turbo launched himself at the officer and proceeded to try and strangle her in his rage, but was drastically unsuccessful.  
>Blanky giggled. "Hey, get off!"<p>

"Hey, hey, hey. Easy." Birkin made his way over with a deadpan expression and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him up.

"But, the wath mocking me!"

He looked down at the small racer and heaved a sigh. "You sure have a temper on you for the supposed hero of your game."

Blanky brushed herself off and thanked Birkin. "Thanks. I appreciate that. I thought I was gonna die from laughter."

Turbo snorted and folded his arms. "Never underethtimate me becauthe of my thithe. Everyone hath it in for me, alwayth making fun of me. Well, I've had enough."

"Come on Turbo, we were only having some fun." Blanky smiled at him sympathetically and sipped on a glass of water to ease her coughing fit that had been brought on by the laughter.

Turbo gave her a dark look in return and mumbled something under his breath.

"Well, that's not very heroic of you." Birkin chuckled over just how personal Turbo was taking everything and couldn't help but wonder just what sort of a character he had been coded as.

"We didn't mean to hurt you, right Ionia?" Blanky gestured for Ionia to help them try and appease Turbo's temper and watched as the blue woman made her way over to him and tickled his belly as Birkin kept a firm grip on his racing suit collar.

"Aww, likkul babbeh!"

"Thtop that!" Turbo writhed as she tickled him, his face growing more red by the second. "THTOP! I THAID THTOP, YOU WRETCHED WOMAN!" He reached out in an attempt to punch Ionia away from him, but failed and just ended up looking ridiculous.

"You're right, Birkin." Blanky tilted her head. "The way he just acted was by no means heroic."

Ionia pouted and stopped tickling him. "He's MY hero."

Birkin gave Ionia an odd look. He knew that she liked him, but was interested in the fact that Turbo had allowed that remark to slip. Normally he shot down all comments that were even remotely affectionate in nature.

Turbo tried to squirm out of the scientists grasp, but just couldn't manage it. It was then that Birkin released his grip and Turbo fell to the ground with a thud. "Oh, whoops! Clumsy me." Birkin grinned down, dusted his hands off and stood over him proudly.

After a very girly shriek, Turbo landed on his butt pretty hard. He rubbed it, grumbling away over just how much it hurt. Ionia just smiled down at him as if everything was normal which made Turbo stick out his tongue at her.

Blanky walked over to Birkin and wrapped an arm round his shoulder. She gave Turbo a light helmet tap and laughed. "Well well! How that the tables have turned, its not nice is it?" She was, of course, referring to when Turbo kicked Birkin a few days previous. This, of course, meant nothing to the racer and he just sat there and raised his nose in the air defiantly.

Birkin folded his arms and smiled down at him, amused that the 3 of them had formed a circle around him. He wondered just what Turbo must have been feeling being so small and being surrounded in such a way.

There was silence as the group decided to leave the lab and head outside to part ways for the night. They exited the lab and Birkin locked everything up securely. They all wandered side by side up the dark roads and watched the stars sparkle in the sky.

It was then Ionia finally piped up. "Kicks hurt. It's awesome." She tilted her head and stared down at Turbo who was walking next to her. "Why do you never kick me?"

Everyone stopped and stared at her.

"Er." Blanky raised a brow at her a little shocked. "You WANT to be kicked? Are you like a masochist or something?"

Ionia didn't reply, instead she just stood there grinning like an idiot.

Birkin just shrugged it off and stuffed his hands in his lab coat pockets. "Well, you learn something new every day..."

"Oh yeah. You sure do." Blanky grinned at Birkin in a suggestive manner. Something that Turbo instantly picked up on.

"Hey, wait... No way!" A grin spread from ear to ear.

"What?" Birkin just tilted his head a little wondering what on earth the racer was babbling on about. It was as if he had caught Ionia's random and vague side all of a sudden. But even she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Whats so funny?"

"I think that fall has sent him even more crazy." Birkin sighed and rubbed at his eyes.

"Stop it Turbo. It's none of your business anyway." Scolded Blanky realizing what he was referring to. "And you could get 20 years for making fun of an officer! I could see to that!"

"What's funny, Turbutt?" Ionia had no idea what was going on and stared at him innocently.

"Ionia," he laced his fingers together and looked up at her, "Thothe two are..."

Blanky instantly pulled out her tazer and shot him with it. "Hey! I warned you Turbo!"

Ionia instinctively jumped upright and readied her water cannons defensively as she watched Turbo writhe around on the road as electricity surged through his body. "Ssss what the..."

Blanky switched off the current and sighed as Turbo managed to force out a few words. "I hate you Blanky Wood!"

Ionia's left eye was twitching, a sure sign that her coding was trying to make sad, angry or nervous emotions and failing miserably causing her to glitch. Blanky patted her arm lightly. "He'll be ok. He just needed a light shock."

"I think it'll do him good." Birkin grinned and watched as Ionia bent down to look at Turbo who was in a messy heap on the tarmac.

"Poor lil guy. He's all pooped." Ionia made kissy faces at the downed racer before patting his helmet lightly.

It took a while, but Turbo finally came to and shot Blanky another death stare before brushing himself down weakly.

"So," Birkin broke the silence, "Have you guys... You know... Yet? I mean, properly?"

Turbo and Ionia's faces flushed bright red. "Heyyyyy! Why you wanna know?"

"Curious. I can't help but wonder how it all works. She's not programmed as a human and you're... Well.." He pointed at Turbo, "You're you."  
>Turbo scoffed and folded his arms. "Whatth that thuppothed to mean?! It'th not that it'th any of your buthineth, but yeah we did. What of it?" He jutted out his lower jaw defiantly.<p>

"Oh? You did, did you?"

Ionia couldn't handle it anymore and burst into fits of giggles like a young school girl.

"And here I thought there was nothing going on between you two." Birkin felt proud of his witty remark until Turbo retorted with his own.

"Heh, look whothe talking."

"I'll have you know that it is not in my nature to blab about my personal life. I am much more focussed on professional things."  
>Turbo was just about to make another sarcastic remark when Ionia snatched him up and winged him around in circles.<p>

"Heyy, put me down! I'm not a baby!"

Blanky giggled to herself. "Baby..."

That did it. Ionia instantly picked up on the word baby and began to squeal. "BABY! AHHH!"

Birkin raised a brow with mild curiosity. "What?"

"Babies are so cuuuute!" She snuggled Turbo and went a little weak at the knees. It was no secret that Ionia had a fondness for babies of any form. She loved them. She loved how big their heads were, how squishy they looked, how soft they felt. She had protected them in her game and admired them from other games.

Blanky let out another chuckle and Birkin gave her a puzzled look.

"Oh, I wasn't laughing at you. Just thought it was funny the way Turbo says he's not a baby, but actually he behaves like one."

Turbo growled. "I HEARD THAT!" He squirmed in Ionia's arms in an attempt to free himself again. He hated how easy people found it to manhandle him in such a way. He narrowed his eyes at Ionia. "Put me down thith inthtant, unleth..." He raised his hands and wiggled his fingers in the air. "Unleth you wanna be tickled!"

Ionia flinched. "What? NO!"

"Oh yeahhh, baby." He instantly dug his fingers into her her arm pit space and began frantically tickling her with an evil smile spread across his grey face. This sent Ionia bawling her eyes out with laughter and she crashed to the ground in a messy pile.

Birkin hopped backwards to avoid getting squished and watched with a serious look on his face. "Turbo. There's something I need to ask you."

Turbo, still busy tickling his companion, looked up to acknowledge Birkin's comment. "What?"

"You said that you two had..." He made hand gestures to signify sexual activity and averted his eyes.

Turbo instantly shot to his feet and waved his hands out in front of him. "Uh, no! No, no, no! Forget about that!"

"So, you haven't?"

The racer heaved an irritated sigh and folded his arms. "I will not thay anything more!"

"There's a reason I ask, I'm not being nosey or asking to poke fun."

Blanky scrunched up her face, completely puzzled by the sudden serious attitude he had. "Birkin, what...?"

Turbo flashed his big, yellow teeth at Ionia who was attempting to recover from her tickling session. "Perhapth you'd like to tell him, Ionia."

She flapped her hand and stared at Birkin. "Wh... What was it... You said? HAHA... Horizonta..."

"Horizontal muchacho mambo?" Birkin raised a brow as Ionia fell back in a heap laughing herself almost to death. He didn't know he was so funny. Perhaps he should take up comedy...

Turbo just groaned at Ionia and wiped a hand over his face. "He needth to know. I don't know why, but he doeth."

Ionia shot upright and grinned widely. "Yes. Yes, we did that. BWAHAHA!"

Birkin couldn't help but pull a disgusted face at the thought of the two being intimate. Those were mental images he certainly didn't want. It wasn't that Ionia was unattractive, far from it. It was more the idea of Turbo being naked. He shuddered. "Ugh... Well... I've been doing research."

Turbo tapped his foot impatiently. "Yeah, and?"

"Into our coding. I mean, all of the characters in the arcade."

Ionia wiped away the tears that had formed from laughing so much. "Why would you do th-that?"

Blanky looked at Birkin, then to Turbo and Ionia, back to Birkin again and let out a sigh. She felt suddenly so excluded. After a moment of thought she slowly slipped off from the group seemingly unnoticed.

"This is going to sound like a horribly personal question, but... Did you use code safeguards when you..." Birkin sighed and rubbed his temples. "I can't believe I'm going to say this... Bumped uglies."

Turbo instantly flinched and coughed into his hand awkwardly. "Uuhhh...why do you need to know about code thafeguardth?"

"Well... How can I put this in laymans terms?" Birkin cringed before squinting at them. "When two digitally coded people love each other very much..."

Ionia had no idea what Birkin meant and tilted her head as Turbo picked at his teeth absentmindedly. "Go on..."

"And they... Well... Join codes. Sometimes there can be an after effect that is not expected."

"Aaaaand why do you wanna know thith?" The racer gestured to the scientist in an irritable manner. He had no interest in discussing such things and he felt it highly insulting that he would even want to talk about something so private.

Ionia raised a hand to her mouth. "I knew he had cooties."

Birkin couldn't help but chuckle at that and especially the reaction it got from Turbo. "COOTIETH!?" He looked genuinely hurt.

"No, no. Not cooties."

Turbo frowned at Birkin. "Then what?"

"Sometimes when codes are joined they can create a branch code."

"And what of it?" The racer couldn't help but be confused about where Birkin was going with the interrogation.

"That branch code develops into its own life." Birkin looked at Turbo with a serious expression.

Turbo just shrugged. "Oh. Tho what do you wanna know about that?"

"You mean like a virus?" Ionia piped up. Her head was trying to figure out what on earth Birkin was blabbering on about.

Turbo grinned at her and patted her leg. "No, thilly. My thilly thweetfathe, you don't know nothing."

Birkin had just about had enough. He ran a hand down his face in desperation and yelled to high heavens. "BABIES, PEOPLE! I'M TALKING ABOUT BABIES!"

Ionia fell backwards over his outburst.

"Yeah, I know what you mean about babieth. But, why do you wanna know?"

Birkin's mouth hung open. He couldn't believe just how nonchalant Turbo was being about such a serious topic. He flapped his arms in frustration. "Did you two at least use code safeguards?"

Turbo shrugged and went back to picking his teeth. "Er, no, we didn't... But why ith that tho important to you? Ith it for thientific thtuff?"

This was just getting stupid. Birkin gritted his teeth and heaved a sigh. He swore any moment he would tear his own hair out. "The percentage of branch codes is very, very..." He suddenly thought about his own situation and felt a bead of sweat drip from his face. "VERY high."

Ionia tilted her head. "I don't get it, bub."

"Look... If you didn't use a safeguard," he pointed at Ionia, "I'd have her coding checked."

Turbo flicked a piece of food he had managed to fish from between his teeth and shrugged again. "He'th right, we'd better get your coding checked. Hey..." The racer frowned up at Birkin. "Why do you care tho much about that?"

"Because, Turbo, you could have created a life."

Ionia, still not following, let out a strange 'eep' sound. "Wait... What?"

"A code baby, he'th talking about a code baby! Jeeeethe!"

Ionia's voice became glitchy. "Sorry. I no here now. Check back tomorrow. BEEP!" She instantly fell backwards with a 'thud' onto the road. Turbo just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"From what I heard you were not the most keen of individuals to be father material, Turbo. And, weeeelll. My theory needs proving. I can do the checks myself back at my lab. I have the protocol all set up."

Turbo grinned confidently and nodded, but inwardly he was screaming. He would never let on, but inside he was a mess. A horrible, panic-stricken mess.

Birkin walked over to Ionia and lightly tapped her with his foot. "Hey. Hey!" There was no reply besides a horrendous 'spool' sound as she dribbled all down the side of her face. Birkin turned round and was about to ask Blanky for help when he noticed that she had vanished. "Hey? Where's..."

Turbo shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe the got bored of you quethtioning me! Hah."

"Hmph." Birkin leaned down and began to slap Ionia around the face a little in an attempt to wake her up, but Turbo was not impressed. He stomped over and took hold of Ionia's head in his arms and patted her cheeks.

"Heeeey, handth off! The'th my thilly thweetfathe! Get your own thweetfathe."

Birkin grinned at him being so protective and unusually affectionate and laughed lightly.

Suddenly, Ionia shot up causing both men to leap in shock. "Barium, cobalt, Einstein, Kool-aid!"

Birkin cleared his throat awkwardly. That outburst certainly was unexpected. "We need to find Blanky and head to my lab for tests."

"I need a driiiiiink." Ionia began to whine and shuffle on the spot.

Turbo couldn't help but agree. The events had taken its toll on his nerves and he was gagging for a glass of root beer. "Me too."

"But the tests!"

"Drink."

"What the lady wanth, the lady getth." Turbo helped Ionia to her feet and walked closely by her side.

Birkin had been defeated. He knew that it was just a few drinks and they'd be back at the lab before he knew it, but inside he wanted to get it over with. His brain was nagging him and he was not one to ignore it. He heaved a sigh and followed them.


	2. Chapter 2

Birkin slowly opened the door to Tappers bar and peered in. It was fairly quiet considering the time, but he was very thankful. Ionia took a running dive inside and landed on her face.

"Thtop injuring your thweet fathe!" Turbo yelled at her and helped her to her feet again. "It'th mine."

It was then that Birkin noticed Blanky. Somehow she had managed to slip away from them and he wanted to know why. He looked her over as she stood playing pool with a rough looking crowd of men. "Huh. So that's where she got to." He waved to see if he could get her to notice that he was there, but she was too busy watching the big, muscle-bound thug make his shot. She had managed to change from her regular attire to a tank top and shades. Birkin couldn't help but wonder how she had found the time.

Ionia was not interested in anything but getting herself a drink and scrabbled her way up to the bar. She sat down on a bar stool and signalled to Tapper to slide her over a few pints. Before long she was surrounded by pint glasses.

Birkin waved at Blanky again. "Uhhh. Hey."

Turbo gave Blanky the onceover and whistled in surprise. He was so used to her being dressed as an officer that he had never imagined her dressed as anything else.

Birkin was getting tired of signalling his arrival. "Hey! Guy with the lab coat here."

Blanky finally looked up over her shades. "I'm sorry, were you talking to me?"

Birkin frowned. What was going on? "Everything OK? You left without saying anything."

"Well fellas, I beat you all. Again." Blanky laughed and leaned against the pool table grinning. It was as if she was ignoring Birking completely and he was not impressed. He stood there and watched in the hopes that after she had finished seeing off the group of thugs that she would finally speak to him. This made Turbo snicker to himself.

"What?" Blanky turned to face Birkin and looked at him from behind her shade.

"You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"

"To be honest, no I didn'." She turned on her heels and placed her pool cue back on the table. "Well anyway, its good to see you. I thought you got bored of me."

"You left. With no word at all. I come here trying to find you and..." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nevermind. You're here and safe."

"Oh, so you want to talk to me, Birkin? I left because I realised I was getting in the way. But, I appreciate you coming to find me."

Turbo grinned and stuck out his chest. "It wath all MY idea!"

"Well, that was nice of you."

Birkin narrowed his eyes, mashed a hand over Turbos' face and pushed him back behind him. "Bored? I was discussing something very important. And it could be very important for... For everyone."

Turbo flailed and slapped his hand away from his face angrily.

"Go on then. I'm all ears." Blanky folded her arms and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"It's not something I can really discuss here."

It was then they were all interrupted by Ionia who had managed to down all the glasses of root beer and was sat looking back at them with half open eyes and drool dripping down her chin. "S'not... S'not... Hai."

"Aaaanyway, I felt hot where I was and wanted to get out of the heat. I wasn't going to disturb you." Blanky looked back to Birkin after Ionia's odd distraction.

"We need to go back to my lab. All of us. We need to have our coding scanned."

Ionia heard and fell off her stool cackling loudly about babies.

Blanky just raised a brow and passed it off as just another one of her oddities. "Fine. but I must admit, you got me worried now."

"Did you hear anything about my findings? Or about Turbo and Ionia? This is very, very important."

"No. Its not my job to go snooping when unnecessary, you know."

"I don't know. I didn't even see when you left. One minute you were there and then poof!" He began gesturing wildly, something that was incredibly out of character for him.

"Oh boy." Blanky realized something serious was going on by his gestures. "You weren't kidding."

"We need to leave. Now. Turbo, go get your girlfriend."

Turbo was about to protest angrily over him calling her his girlfriend, but decided against it when Birkin shot him a furious look. The racer glanced over at Ionia and watched as she rolled around on the floor.

"Hahahahaha. Floor tastes like butts."

Turbo helped her to her feet and frowned as she clung to his racing suit.

"Lets go. Come on. No time." Birkin waved them over to the door and dashed out.

Half way down the road Birkin eyed Turbo carrying Ionia, and was just about to ask how he managed it, but stopped himself. He knew that it would just start some drama that he really didn't need at that moment. He had enough on his mind.

"Hey, Birkin! Slow down!" Blanky raced to keep up with him. "Can you please exlain what was so urgent you had to get me out of there?"

The flustered scientist quickly input all his security codes, but was met with a red light. He kicked the door in frustration. "Grr, damn it." He tried another code and breathed a sigh of relief as it hissed open. Ionia, Turbo and Blanky wandered in after him and watched him scurry around like a mad man.

Blanky was still wondering what on earth the big deal was and was a little irritated by the interruption at Tapper's. "I don't get much chance for a break you know."

"You and Ionia need your coding checked." Birkin had no time to explain at that moment as he dashed inside the main lab room, flung open all the doors and switched on all the lights and consoles. He hopped into a chair and began to frantically type away on the keyboards on the various desks around the room.

"Not until you explain what this is all about first!" Blanky was already wary of scientists and being examined in laboratory environments. It was a dark part of her past that she just wanted to stay buried and she did not intend to go through it again. Her eyes narrowed at Birkin.  
>He sighed and leaned back in one of the office chairs he had claimed. "Do I really have to explain it again?" His eyes drifted over to Turbo in the hope that he would fill in the details so he could do the work he needed to in peace.<p>

"Excuse me, but I haven't had much experience with scientists with regard to my personal life. Its mostly been cops. So, just explain it simply."

Birkin pressed a button and an examination table slowly lowered down from the wall with padding and various wires poking out from it.  
>Turbo rolled his eyes. "Bathically, he wantht to know if you have babieth."<p>

Ionia bursts into a fit of giggles again as Blanky stared at them dumbstruck. "Wha...? How would you come to that conclusion?"

"Oh, thtop playing dumb."

"No, but really, how?"

Birkin pushed away from the desk he was at and wheeled over to another. "Look... Simply put... When two characters join code, they can create branch codes. That branch code becomes its own life. Like I was talking about earlier, if you'd have actually listened, I've been doing research into it. And without use of code safeguards, that is a VERY high possiblity of becoming reality." Birkin ran a hand through his hair nervously and loosened his tie a little.

"Yeah?" But, what does that have to do with me?"

Birkin ignored her question and removed his lab coat, set it down on the back of the office chair and walked up to the examination table. "Who is going first?"

Blanky flinched and raised her hands defensively. "Not me. I hate injections!"

"It's not an injection. I need to access your coding. Something I know is familar to someone else in this room." He grinned at Turbo, making reference to the previous version of him code surfing.

"How do you do that? It better not be someorrible method." Blanky shuddered remembering her time at the hospital.

"We are all made up of code, right?" Birkin tugged some cables out from a panel in the wall. "Well, sometimes that code needs to be accessed. That can be for debugging purposes, rewriting, or other reasons. All I need to do is access it by patching myself into your energy field. It's as simple as that. Once I attach these to your body I can access your code."

Blanky shook her head. "I still don't see why I have to do this. I'm using th..." She paused for a moment and thought carefully.  
>"You used code safeguards?" Birkin stopped and looked over at her.<p>

"Oh. Wait a moment." Her eyes widened and she met his gaze with a worried grimace. She didn't say anymore and just let out a blood-curdling shriek of terror. "That was the one time I..."

Turbo, Ionia and Birkin all stared at her in puzzlement. She had never made such a loud outburst since they had known her and it startled them.

"W-Well, anyway." Blanky looked to Ionia a little red-faced. "Why don't you go first?"

Ionia just nodded and skipped over to the table. After she had jumped up, Birkin rolled up his sleeves and took hold of one of her arms. He carefully attached the cables with sticky pads and attached the other end of each one to a panel in the wall. Ionia's eyes fell on Turbo who was not particularly impressed that Birkin was touching her and the fact that Ionia was giggling due to being ticklish made his frown even worse.

"I need to attach this one under your armour." Birkin raised the last cable towards Ionia awkwardly.

"Uhh, well... Fine."

He tried his best not to look as he slowly slipped his hand under the rim of her chest armour. By this point, both Turbo AND Blanky were staring, a little jealous of what was unfolding.

After clearing his throat, Birkin hopped into his chair and scooted over to his console.

Blanky sighed and folded her arms. "Do you still need me here? How long is this gonna take?"

"Not long." The scientist kept his eyes on the screen as he rattled away on the keys for a moment before rolling himself over to a smaller console nearer the table. "Right. All eyes on the screen." He flipped a switch and a large screen above the table flickered to life.

"Not long? Good. Because I spotted someone and was watching him in the bar. He'll have gone by now."

Turbo glared up at Blanky. "Huh?" The outburst seemed very out of character indeed.

Birkin just frowned and focused his attention on his typing. He rattled away frantically and accessed her coding which flashed up as number sequences on the screen.

Ionia stared at the screen above her in awe of all the strings of code that she could see. Every one of those contained information about her. Her memories, her protocols, her personality and thoughts. "Ooooohhhh."

Birkin, still rattled by Blanky's comment, mashed a key with frustration. The code on the screen flashed and morphed into images that looked very similar to how games were coded. Boxes containing files much like folders on a computer. "Right then. Let's investigate."

Blanky watched the screen and felt a sudden wave of nerves wash over her. It made her feel a little nauseous and she shuffled on the spot. "Haha. That was the only time I forgot to take my precautions!"

Birkin had been busy adjusting some settings so he could delve deeper into Ionia's code when Blanky had her random outburst and he ended up mashing the keys in shock. This sent a jolt of electricity down through the cables into Ionia's body. "OOYAH!"

"Hey, calm down." Blanky flapped a hand at Birkin as he turned sharply and gave her a shocked look.

Turbo just shook his head and muttered about how silly everyone was under his breath.

"Hey, hey. Lady with the wires here." Ionia waved an arm around in an attempt to get Birkin's attention again. Thankfully, he heard her and returned to his code hunting.

The room fell silent and only the sound of Birkin's frantic typing could be heard over the whirr of the machines. All eyes were on the main monitor as he delved into each 'folder' in an attempt to rule out any branch codes. Suddenly he stopped and yelled out. "Aha!"

The screen had started to flicker from a fuzzy image to a glitched one and back again before settling on a small, red looking file that was attached to one of Ionia's main source codes by thin, red lines. Ionia wriggled awkwardly and pointed at the screen. "What... Is that?"

Blanky had not been concentrating at all and was chewing her lip nervously, looking at her feet. It was only when Birkin turned around in his chair and looked at Turbo that she finally noticed what was going on.

Birkin pointed at the screen and leaned forwards to look Turbo in the eye. "THAT is why you use code safeguards!"

The racer blinked, looked at the screen, to Ionia and back to the screen again as the small string of code shifted and changed formation a little, attaching itself to other source codes.

Blanky just yawned. She had seen such a thing before back when she was being held in the labs.

"I suppose I should do the stereotypical thing shouldn't I?" Birkin scratched the back of his neck before stretching out a hand to Turbo. "Congratulations."

Turbo's face was a sight. His eyes would not keep still. They kept darting from the screen, to Birkin, to Ionia, to god knows what else and back again. It was as if his pupils wanted to flees in terror and were bouncing around in an attempt to escape.

Blanky burst out laughing and grinned sarcastically. "Well, congrats you two!"

Ionia had been sat there staring at the screen, unable to form words. Her eye twitched wildly as her mind tried to comprehend what it was that she was viewing. She looked down at Turbo with a vacant expression. "I don't get it. What's going on?" Her blue eyes flickered a little as she fixed her gaze back on the little, red code on the screen. Turbo's mind had finally caught up with him and the gravity of the situation dawned on him. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell backwards with a loud thud.

"Phew! Well, I was beginning to feel like a cative here! Isn't it my turn now?" Blanky hopped over to the table and smiled at Birkin.

"Your turn" He started to remove all the wires from Ionia and helped her down from the table before patting it for Blanky to hop up. Blanky took a few deep breaths to ready herself and climbed on. The leather padding squeaked under her as she adjusted herself to try and get comfortable. She shut her eyes tight as Birkin began to stick the pads to her skin and tried to focus her attention on not hyperventilating.

Ionia had taken to the floor and was attempting to wake Turbo up. She still couldn't make head nor tail of what was going on. She tried slapping him, but that didn't work, so she grabbed him and started shaking him like a rag doll. "Heeeeyyy. Wake up!"

Blanky peered over at Ionia and rolled her eyes as Birkin continued to stick the pads to her body. "In a nutshell, you two are having a baby."

"Wait... What?" Ionia perked up. "Turbo, wake up! Someone's having a baby!"

"Uhh, he knows. that's why he passed out, Ionia."

"Why would he pass out? Unless..." She thought about it for a moment and gasped loudly. "Oh no. HE CHEATED ON ME DIDN'T HE!?"

"What!? No, of course not! If he cheated on you, how could you be pregnant by him?"

Ionia's eyes widened as she turned her head to face Blanky. "Wait... Me!? I'm not preg... Wait... Huh?" It finally dawned on her and her mouth hung open. It was then Turbo finally came to and he let out a groan.

"Ngghh, who thlapped me?"

Ionia instantly held him to her tightly and let out a shrill squeal of happiness. Her celebration was cut short as Birkin ordered silence as he finished attaching the cables to Blanky and asked for everyone's eyes to be on the screen above. "Eyes on the screen time." He typed away and delved his way into the layers of coding, opening one file after another.

Birkin finally spoke and he gave Blanky a sideways glance. "You have some very interesting code."

"Oh yeah? Is it dressed funny?" She couldn't resist injecting a little humour into the situation. She feared that anymore seriousness would send her crazy.

"It, er... You know, it wouldn't take much to erase some bad memories, you know?" Birkin grinned at her and wiggled his fingers over the keys. He was very tempted to do it, but he knew it would be bad for her in the long run. He just hated to see her suffer.

"You can do that?"

"Yeah. I know it'd be wrong for me to do it, but..."

"Why wrong? Do it! Please!" Blanky virtually begged him, but he sighed sadly.

"That would mess with your game. And people might think you are glitching and have your game shut down. Without those memories, would you be you anymore?"

He had a point and Blanky couldn't help but agree with him. It frustrated her, but she knew what he said made sense. Her train of thought was halted when Birkin let out a small yelp. "Wait a second..."

"What is it?"

He squinted at the screen above them then back to his console again.

"Is it...bad?

Birkin let out an exasperated sigh and flopped backwards into his seat before hunching over his keyboard again, typing away frantically. The screen displayed various folders open and they changed each time he pressed the enter key.

"What, what did you see? Whatever you saw mustve been horrifying to make you react the way you did." Blanky's face contorted in horror at the thought of him finding something truely terrible.

"Someone had made a horrible error in your code! If you ever reached a certain part of your game you'd have ended up in a glitch loop! One you'd not get out of."

Blanky gasped and flopped back onto the table again in shock. She knew exactly who had changed her coding and she was very unimpressed.

"This might feel odd." Birkin looked over to her as he hovered a finger over the enter key. One click and the glitch would be fixed. Blanky readied herself and dug her fingers into the padding before he hit the enter key and the folders were erased and the pathways fixed. She scrunched up her face as a strange tingling sensation washed over her. It was too much and she passed out.

"Code changed." Birkin looked back at her with a smile. A smile that dropped as soon as he saw that she had fainted. "Oh. Uh..."

Ionia had stopped mithering Turbo and had noticed what was going on. She stood upright and skipped over to Blanky. "I'm on it!" After taking hold of Blanky by the shoulder she slapped her around the face a little.

Birkin cringed a little, glad she wasn't awake to feel it. "Careful now. Not too hard!"

"THAT'S WHAT SHEEE SAID!" Ionia grinned and let her go as Blanky began to wriggle.

"No, no! Let me go you bastards! enough with your electric shocks!"

Ionia laughed loudly. "We aren't bastards. We're us!"

"Oh its you, Ionia. And Birkin and Turbo.

Birkin leaned over and patted her foot. "No one's coming to get you."

"Yes... thanks. Sorry. Just another nasty flashback. It happens occasionally since my uh, 'treatment.'"

Birkin nodded and pointed to the screen. Blanky looked up and smiled widely. "Oh ,you've removed the glitch! I...I cant thank you enough. you've saved my life!"

Birkin flushed pink and shook his head returning to his work again. "Don't... Thank me just yet... Look closer."

Blanky did as he asked and squinted up at the screen. Ionia also looked up and grinned widely while hopping on the spot. "Ooooooh it looks like my little code!"

Blanky looked back at Birkin who was nervously fiddling with a clipboard that he had been making notes on.

"Aw, no fair. Why do you have two?" Ionia suddenly yelled out and pointed at the screen.

Blanky's head swivelled back round to look at the screen. "T-Two? What are you talking about?" Her voice hushed to a shocked whisper as it dawned on her. "Oh my god, its twins." But, despite the initial shock, she was happy. A small tear eased it's way our of the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek. She chuckled and looked back over to Birkin whose face was a picture. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"This is all..." He fanned himself with a sheet of paper and tugged on his shirt collar. "All so much... To take in."

"It will be alright, sweetheart."

Turbo instantly keeled over when he heard the term of endearment being used and he rolled around repeating it over and over laughing so hard he was almost crying.

Ionia was busy cooing over the screen and had taken to smooching it and talking softly to it as if it could hear her. She smiled back at everyone and pressed her cheeks in with her hands. "I want to see my code again."

"Just hook yourself back up if you want another look, Ionia." Birkin looked over to Blanky with a smile. "I think someone needs those wires."

Blanky nodded and unhooked the cables from herself and handed them over to Ionia who took them excitedly. Blanky hopped down and Ionia wasted no time in taking her place and sticking the cables in the same places as Birkin had originally.

Birkin typed in the code needed to view it and hooked an arm around Blanky while he watched Ionia's face. Her reactions were entertaining to watch. Excitement, love, awe and curiosity all at once. It made her face dance around comically.

The screen flickered to life to show the little red code box and Ionia squealed with delight. Turbo was still cackling to himself over what Blanky had called Birkin and had not been paying any attention at all.

"Well, im so glad Ionia's pregnancy has had such a happy effect on you." Blanky grinned sarcastically at the racer and sat herself on Birkin's lap. "But really, it's not that funny."

"TURBUTT LOOK!" Ionia pointed to the screen, an excited look plastered on her face as she bounced up and down on the table.

Turbo followed her finger and stared at the little red code box dumbfounded, his mouth agape. "Huh!?"

"LOOKIT THE CODE!"

It was as if his previous fainting session had wiped it from his memory and he stared at the screen with a new sense of fear. "You... you mean we're..." He stammered awkwardly and pointed a shaky finger upwards. A tear forced its way out of the corner of his eyes, then another and another until he finally collapsed in a bawling mess on the floor.

Birkin raised a brow. "Hey. What's with the tears?"

"Aww, look at that! He's so happy that he's crying!" Blanky clasped her hands together and smiled.

Turbo scrunched up his eyes for a moment. That was not it at all. How wrong could she be? He couldn't let on what he was feeling at all. He had to hide it. "Uuh, yeah, what she said!" He smiled broadly and prayed to Akuma that his smile wouldn't waver. Inwardly he was screaming, screaming so loud he was scared that people would be able to hear it. He had to suck it up. There was no turning back. No hiding from it. He was an adult. He was Turbo, the greatest racer ever! He stuck out his chest proudly and wiped his eyes. "You've made me the happietht rather ever!"


End file.
